First attempt at the mountain, and was lucky to get a great break in some variable weather that week. Route was clear and not as busy as I expected. Lots of folk had turned round at the solvay so not a busy descent. Left at 4am, topped out at 8am, and back down by 12.

Left the Hornli Hut a little after 4:30 and climbed the ridge solo in 3:50, topping out in strong winds and clear skies. Descended in about the same time, rappeling the slabs around the Solvay hut with the rope I carried. I cannot overstate the importance of scouting the lower parts of the route in daylight before a climb. There were some very lost parties doing crazy things in the dark that morning.

Having been turned back in mid August by collapsing weather it was very cool to complete the ascent on my second attempt.

Left the Hornli Hut at 4AM and reached the summit just before 8AM in strong wind and clear skies. The route was in very good condition and there were only about 15 people climbing, so I was able to move quickly (no issues with bottlenecking or rockfall). I scouted the first hour of the route the day before, so there were no routefinding issues in the dark. I actually had more routefinding problems on the descent, which took about 4.5 hours. When I left for the Alps this year, I hoped that I would get a chance to climb the Matterhorn. I didn't expect that I would climb it solo though, but it just turned out that way.

Had no intention of going for the summit, just a bit of a recon' trip. Climbed the first two pitches. found the route in a lite covering of snow. Worth doing so if i go back i now know the section that i will be doing in the dark.

A very crowded but still enjoyable route. Only 3,5 hours up, but more than 4 hours down again because of the crowds heading up. Secondly we had some minor routefinding problems on the east face as well (wasted 15 minutes)

On leave from my army post in Rochefort-sur-mer, France, I took trains to Zermatt and hired a guide called Emil Julen. Emil had been recommended to me by my older brother who met him a year earlier when he was on leave from the army in Germany. The weather was overcast when I hiked up to the Schwartzsee Hotel where Emil was waiting for me. We shook hands and proceeded to hike up to the Belvedere hotel/hut just under the Matterhorn pyramid still lost in the cloudy overcast. Since my arrival in Zermatt I had yet to catch sight of the fabled peak rising immediately above us. We had supper and then I bedded down for the night under a big down quilt. I did not sleep well, worrying about the awesome undertaking I was to face the next day.
Emil roused me out of bed at four am. After a hot breakfast, he led me up to the base of the Matterhorn pyramid which loomed sharply and darkly against a starry sky. We roped up and began a steep ascent on the Hornli Ridge. Emil instructed me to follow his foot steps and to "walk on eggs." The next four hours were sheer terror as I had a hard time realizing where I was and what I was doing. Above the Salvoy Hut, we caught up with a Stanford coed and her guide. I suffered masculine humiliation when this woman advised me on how to climb and cautioned me not to lean in toward the rockface. However as the sun rose and we reached the shoulder of the Matterhorn, we left her behind as I more confidently followed Emil up the snow-covered shoulder of the Matterhorn to the famous overhang. Emil belayed me as I went hand over hand up the free-hanging fixed ropes onto the roof of the mountain. By ten o'clock we stood on the Swiss summit. The Stanford coed and her guide caught up with us. I photographed them and then handed my camera to Emil who took my picture as a I stood there in triumph. However his aim was poor and he cut off my legs. Thus I do not have a picture of me with my boots standing on the top of the Matterhorn.
The weather was cold and windy with only the highest summits of the Alps visible above a sea of clouds. We remained on the summit for less than a half hour before we undertook a very cautious descent. It took four hours for Emil to carefully lower me from ledge to ledge back down the Hornli ridge. Just above the Belvedere Hotel Emil and I parted company. Emil loped down the path to meet another client at the Schwarzsee Hotel. With poor weather the norm that summer, he was eager to get work whenever he could.
In Zermatt the next day I futilely searched for that assertive woman with whom I had shared the Matterhorn's summit, hoping to ignite a romance. Two days later I paid Emil his fee of forty dollars, all that a guide charged fifty years ago to pull a novice up the Matterhorn. Forty dollars then had the buying power of from four to eight hundred dollars or more now.
Back in Rochefort three weeks later. I saw an article in the Stars and Stripes, the armed forces tabloid, on how a guideless pair, a young American from Colorado and an Englishmen, had fallen to their deaths from the Matterhorn. When I revisited Zermatt four years later I pondered over their graves and expressed my gratitude to Emil for sparing me from a similar tragic fate.
Today on my den wall is a poster-size kodachrome photograph of the Tiger of the Alps framed by Arolla pines. It shows me standing in the center of the picture two days after I had stood on its peak. I was quite skinny then, being sixty pounds lighter than I am now at age seventy-seven (see it among the Matterhorn photos).
I wonder if Emil is still alive. In 1959 Emil told me he had lost a brother from a rockfall on the Dom de Mischabel. He must be in his early eighties by now (2010). I still have a photo of Emil with rope and ice ax peering upwards toward the mountain. His care and expertise helped me realize the crowning achievement of my youth, a climb of that supreme symbol of mountaineering.

This was the fist part of what my new friends, whom I got to know in my "basecamp" on the great camping ground in Randa-Attermenzen during my 4 weeks, which I stayed there, called my "Trilogy". Originally, it was not planned at all. It just happened: the solo climbs of Matterhorn, Zinalrothorn and Weisshorn.

There was a lot of rockfall on this ridge, especially in the evening, 10 minutes, a big avalanche of rocks fell down ....

Some days before, a german climber got killed on Lion-Ridge due to rockfall.

This year is not a good year in order to climb Matterhorn.

Besides me, about 50 other people climbed Matterhorn via Hörnli-Ridge on this day. Therefore I did not really feel, as if I climbed it free soloing.

I left with my guide, Andrew, at 0400. We reached the summit at 0800. The weather was overcast and on the descent we had thunder, lightning and hail. Five minutes after we reached the Hornlihutte it poured ice and rain. It was lucky timing. The route barely had any ice on it. We wore crampons for only a small portion and some parties didn't even put crampons on. It's basically a very long scramble with great protection in the steeper spots. The route finding is very difficult. Some guides had summitted four times and still needed a little guidance from the senior guys. KNOW THE ROUTE IF YOU GO IT ALONE.

Left the Hornli Hut about 5am with Swiss Guide "Tommy". Conditions were perfect, reached the Solvay Hut about 8am without any real difficulties, had a drink and a quick bite to eat before setting off again. Apart from being too warm everything went fine to the Shoulder - then my Crampons went tumbling down the Mountain, good old Tommy went after them (I belayed him) they had lodged behind a rock not too far down. Set off again, Crampons intact for the Summit. Climbed the fixed ropes ok, we hit the Summit about 10am. Not bad for someone who had never done any rope climbing in their life. Although I did get some experience on an indoor rock wall first. So 5 hours to the top, 20 minutes rest stop for food, drink and photos, then we headed slowly down which took 4 hours (we abseiled quite a bit) we were having a beer in the Hornli Hut just after 2pm. Without a doubt my very best day out. Oh! would I do it again, are you joking, you bet I would. Fantastic!